Angry People

 1/3/25

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. —Matthew 2:1-3 

Pay attention to verse 3: “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” Herod was about as bad as you could get. He was a master builder; the Temple he built was an amazing structure, as were many other building projects he undertook. But he was proud, paranoid, and power-hungry. Suspecting a power struggle, he murdered his own wife, her two sons, her brother, mother, and grandmother. People quipped that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son, a play on words: In Greek, the word for pig is only one letter different from the word for son.

So when it says when Herod was troubled, all Jerusalem was troubled, this was no exaggeration. He was ruthless and unpredictable. We’ll hear more about that later. But for now, pay attention to a bit of wisdom I learned the hard way: Keep your distance from angry people. They may be talented, have resources and connections, but if you get too close to an angry person, sooner or later, you will become a target, and it won’t be pretty.